


His Special Surprise

by CordeliaOllivander



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Character Death, Dreams and Nightmares, Established Relationship, F/M, Facebook: The Slytherin Cabal, Hallucinations, Memories, Mental Anguish, Mental Instability, The Slytherin Cabal's Twistmas 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-22
Updated: 2019-12-22
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:48:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21895414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CordeliaOllivander/pseuds/CordeliaOllivander
Summary: Four pages.How could she let this happen?Surely, four pages wasn’t enough. Why had she even kept them?Four pages.She could fight this, she did it once before... only she didn’t. She failed last time. Just like she had failed-“It is time.”Ginny closed her eyes as a few stray tears slipped out. “Yes, My Lord.”
Relationships: Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley, Tom Riddle/Ginny Weasley
Comments: 6
Kudos: 28
Collections: Twistmas 2019 - A Dark Remix Xmas Fest





	His Special Surprise

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by Anonymous in the [Twistmas2019](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/Twistmas2019) collection. 



> **Prompt:**
> 
> Anonymous Xmas Gift: a vial containing a memory, and an envelope
> 
> Trigger Warnings: Major Character Death and severe mental illness. Please read at your own risk. 
> 
> This is my second time participating in Twistmas! I don't usually write sad or tragic stories, so the opportunity to do so was a lot of fun. I hope this piece delivers! Thank you for reading!

Four pages.

How could she let this happen?

Surely, four pages wasn’t enough. Why had she even kept them?

Four pages.

She could fight this, she did it once before... only she didn’t. She failed last time. Just like she had failed-

_“It is time.”_

Ginny closed her eyes as a few stray tears slipped out. “Yes, my lord.”

* * *

Christmas.

This Christmas was going to be the best ever. This Christmas, Harry had the best gift to give Ginny. One she would never see coming. A special kind of surprise.

Returning home to Grimmauld Place with his arms full of wrapped packages he flopped the pile on the floor with a grunt.

  
“Gin?”

  
Harry waited a moment for any sign that his girlfriend was home, but heard nothing. She must’ve went out shopping too he realized. Perfect. It would give him the chance to fill up the bottom of their tree with the dozens of gifts he’d purchased, and hide the most precious one among them. He smirked as he fished the small jewelry box from his pocket. Ginny was a notorious snoop. He would have to bury this one at the bottom of the pile to ensure that she opened it last.

Then Harry would watch her open it has he knelt before her, and asked her to marry him. He couldn’t wait for Christmas.

He let out a nervous breath and shoved the gift back into his pocket. His nerves would surely get the best of him if he didn’t do this now and get it out of his mind. He turned to survey their tree, to try and envision exactly where each present should be placed, when he spotted a single gift underneath.

His brows furrowed as he looked at it. He didn’t remember it being there when he left. Walking over to the tree he picked up the feather light package, wrapped in heavy brown paper with a single white and green tag. _Harry Potter_ was in elegant script and thick black ink that made a shiver run down his spine.

He recognized this writing.

How? How was this possible after all these years?

He frantically tore at the wrapping to find out what was inside, even as he dreaded finding out what this gift might contain.

An envelope and a vial.

That was all the box held. With shaky hands Harry picked up the vial and realized the swirling liquid inside was a memory. He gripped it tightly as he broke the wax seal on the envelope. He could hear Tom Riddle’s voice as he read the words on the page, as if they had just spoken yesterday.

_Dear Harry Potter,_

_It has been a long time. I have gone several more years than this without a body to contain my soul, but fear not, I still have faithful followers; and they have come through spectacularly. Or, should I say... she._

Harry’s blood turned to ice as the panic filled him.

_Miss Weasley comes with profound intelligence. She alone was able to bring me back, almost effortlessly. It was astounding, Harry! Her devotion! Her loyalty! She fought it at first, oh yes, but I can be very... persuasive. I’m sure you recall. The fight that Miss Weasley has inside of her will soon be inside of me, and it is with great anticipation that I conclude this letter with..._

_I shall see you soon._

_Yours,_   
_Tom Riddle_

Harry clutched the letter tightly in his hand and disaparated.

* * *

“Hermione!” Harry bellowed the moment he popped into her living room.

  
Hermione was sitting on a small love seat reading and nearly jumped out of her skin. “Harry! You fri-“

  
“I need the pensieve!”

  
Hermione took in her best friends terrified expression and stood at once.

  
Harry followed her into one of the back bedrooms and watched with impatience as Hermione summoned the pensieve from her never ending closet.

  
Hermione brought it over so it was floating between them. “Harry, please tell me what’s going on.”

  
“I don’t know.” He rushed out as he shoved the crumpled letter at her. “This might be a clue.”  
He uncorked the vial and poured it in, not wasting a single second.

The memory swirled and danced around before it pulled them both into its depths.

~

They were at Grimmauld Place, in Ginny’s study to be exact. Everything looked exactly the same as it always did. Quidditch posters on the walls, gear piled unceremoniously in the corner, her first broom hanging on the wall surrounded by pictures of her Holyhead Harpies players. Sheets of paper with scribble and plays written in nonsense patterns.

“I don’t understand.” Hermione breathed as she took it all in.

  
Harry barely shook his head. “I don’t either. This was just a few weeks after we finally redecorated this room for her. We’d been unpacking boxes all-

  
Ginny entered the room then, looking slightly panicked and frightened. She slammed the door and ran to her desk ripping open the bottom drawer with such force the entire drawer slid off the tracks and fell to the floor. Her breathing had quickened, and Harry thought she was on the verge of a panic attack.

A knock on the door. Harry knew it would be him.

“Gin? Everything okay?”Ginny stood up straight and pushed her hair away from her face.

“Fine, Harry. I’ll- I’ll be down shortly. Uh, h-headache.”

Harry chuckled from outside the door. “Perkins still being rough during practice, then?”

“Y-Yea. She is.” She stammered out.

“See you downstairs, babe.”

Harry heard himself walk away, his eyes never leaving Ginny’s face. How had he not picked up on her distress?

Ginny crouched down behind her desk and Harry moved to see what she was doing.

“What are those?” Hermione asked.

Harry eyed the sheets of plain looking paper in her shaking hands. “I have no idea.”

~

The memory changed into something Harry hadn’t thought about in years. Tom Riddle’s diary. Eleven year old Ginny was crouched in the corner of her girls dormitory, sobbing uncontrollably as she stared at the book. In a fight if rage she began ripping out page after page of the book, in a useless attempt to destroy it. The pages floated in the air before gracefully landing on the floor, as if they didn’t contain the soul of the most evil man the wizarding world had ever seen.

The memory cut out abruptly, and Harry heard _his_ voice.

“You will assist me, Ginny. It is already too late. There is more of my soul in you than your own.”

“No.” Ginny cried as she pulled at her hair. “N-no.”

“Ginny.” Tom’s voice stern and unforgiving. “Now.”

As if she was no longer in control of herself, Ginny sat up with glazed eyes and got out of bed, leaving the dormitory in the middle of the night.

~

Scenes swirled around them as her own memories seemed to fight for control of what they were going to show Harry next.

“Harry.” Hermione breathed. “The pages.”

Harry looked confused for a moment before it dawned on him. “But... why would she keep them? She wouldn’t do that. She hated him, even more than me!”

“Maybe she didn’t mean to.” Hermione said rapidly. “Shoved in her trunk or placed there by one of the elves that didn’t know what they were. Lost for years... until you unpacked.”

Harry stood there in shock. Could four pages really bring him back? Was Voldemort really back?

~

They were back in Ginny’s study now, watching her as she stared at the four sheets of paper on her desk. Everything else had been pushed to the floor by the looks of it, leaving only the pages that had consumed her thoughts. It was dark out, and she looked so tired.

“Incindio!”

She watched as the pages on her desk sat un-moving, refusing to burn. Tearing them to pieces had done nothing, they just reappeared just as they had done all those years ago.

“Fight it, Ginny. Stop being so pathetic!” She scolded herself through her hysteria.

_“You can’t.”_

She froze at the sound.

“No, no this isn’t real! You’re not real! Harry defeated you!”

She backed up and pushed herself flat against the book case and looked around the room as if Tom Riddle himself would come to form right in front of her.

_“You brought me back, Ginny.”_

His voice turned to a whisper, and Harry could just hear the disgusting smile.

_“Very well done.”_

Harry watched helplessly as Ginny sank to the floor and buried her face in her hands.

~

“I can’t watch any more of this!” He snapped. “I have to find her!”

“There might be a clue as to where she might be.” Hermione reasoned. “We have to. She seems to be fighting it.”

“How could she possibly bring him back, Hermione? It doesn’t make any sense. The basilisk venom-“

“Destroyed it beyond repair.” She finished, her faced etched with worry.

Harry sighed and tugged at his hair as the memory changed. They were now in complete darkness. His eyes fell on a Tom Riddle that looked so real he could have reached out and touched him. The perfect suit, the Slytherin crest, the smirk of victory. His perfect posture and his disgusting confidence that he was the most powerful wizard alive.

Ginny was standing before him, her head bowed out of respect. _Out of service._

“Ginny.” Harry breathed. He wanted to do something, anything to get her away from him.

_“Well done, Ginny.”_

“Thank you, My Lord.”

Harry shook his head in disbelief. “No, this isn’t real. This can’t be real!”

_“We will destroy Harry Potter together. I am the real savior.”_

“Yes, My Lord.”

_“Then, you will be mine.”_

His hand cupped her cheek and Harry launched himself at him, only to fall through the ghost of the man in the memory.

“Of course. My Lord.”

~

The memory shifted again, and this time Harry recognized the moment. This one was current, from their morning together. Ginny looked so beautiful, in Harry’s opinion she was always beautiful.

“Going out shopping later?” She asked over breakfast.

“Mhm.” Harry responded as he sipped his tea. “Just need to get a few more things.”

“Anything for me?” She smiled.

Harry grinned at her. “Maybe.”

The moment seemed so pure, so innocent. So full of love. A flutter of images changed before him and with a shock of fear he saw his Ginny standing in a graveyard.

“I know where she is!”

Without warning he forced himself pensieve, then disaparated.

* * *

He landed in Norfolk, where Tom Riddle was buried.

The birthplace of Salazar Slytherin. The ancient graveyard where several of his descendants were buried. Harry had made the choice to bury Voldemort’s body here, with a plain stone grave that only read Tom Riddle Jr, and nothing else.

He ran as fast as he could, and saw Ginny’s bright red hair standing over the burial site.

“Ginny!”

She turned to face him and Harry’s heart stopped. Her eyes looked tormented. Her make up smeared down her face. Her arms full of bloody gashes. She held a dagger in one fist as she shook with either fear or rage, Harry wasn’t sure which.

“Ginny, it’s okay. I’m here.”

“I c-can’t stop him, Harry!” She cried.

“I can.” He said evenly as he took slow steps towards her. “I can fight him for you.”

She shook her head rapidly, then looked down at the ground where she’d dug a large hole. “It’s too late...”

Harry watched as she picked up a stick and threw into the grave.

“Bone of the father... unknowingly given...”

Harry began to panic as she recited the words for the resurrection ritual. “Ginny-“

“F-flesh of the... s-servant...” she sliced the knife across her left arm, the usual placement for a dark mark, dripping blood and flesh into the hole. “You will revive your m-master.”

She pointed the knife at her stomach, and Harry leapt forward. “Ginny, no!”

She’d cast a forcefield. It would take too much time to dismantle it.

“Ginny, you don’t have to do this.” His voice full of terror.

“Blood of the enemy... f-forcibly taken. He will revive your foe.”

“He? Ginny, what-“

She cried out as the stabbed her stomach, a sound that Harry would never forget. The forcefield broke and he ran to her as she fell to the ground, her blood pooling all around her.

* * *

Harry had never felt so exhausted. These last few weeks were excruciatingly long, but at least at the end of it, he had gotten to spend Christmas Day with Ginny after all.

Harry thought back to the memories he’d watched of Ginny’s tortured mind. He’d checked her bottom desk drawer, the only thing it contained was four sheets of blank parchment. The desk top looked as pristine as the day they had bought it, not a single scorch mark in sight. The “bone” in the graveyard really was just a stick...

Voldemort had taken everything from him again, and he wasn’t even real this time.

Ginny would never know that.

His unborn child would never know that.

The ring still carried in his pocket seemed like a weight he could no longer keep. He placed it in front of her grave, nestled by the snow.

_His special surprise._


End file.
